Hearing voices

[Tenka]

My mother burst into my room this morning, very upset and emotional, she'd been reading the paper with breakfast and she heard a voice reportedly as clear as if the speaker had been standing a few feet behind her, call her name.
Now, I believe she had this experience, I don't believe she is crazy. I've heard several people describe similar experiences on this forum and I can understand why people would so readily attribute it to god or ghosts or something supernatural...as my mother is quite tempted to do.

So what does science offer us by way of explanation? have any spiritually inclined experienced this Vs fierce skeptics?

 

[True_Blue]

My mother burst into my room this morning, very upset and emotional, she'd been reading the paper with breakfast and she heard a voice reportedly as clear as if the speaker had been standing a few feet behind her, call her name.
Now, I believe she had this experience, I don't believe she is crazy. I've heard several people describe similar experiences on this forum and I can understand why people would so readily attribute it to god or ghosts or something supernatural...as my mother is quite tempted to do.

So what does science offer us by way of explanation? have any spiritually inclined experienced this Vs fierce skeptics?

In the Chronicles of Narnia, the old professor questions Peter about his skepticism that Lucy actually went through the wardrobe. He asks Peter if Lucy is prone to lying. He admitted no. He asked her if she is crazy or has delusions. He admitted no. He then concluded that it is logical that she could be telling the truth.

I have two very good friends who heard a supernatural voice. One is a medical doctor, a colonel in the Air Force, and an astronautical engineer. As he was praying about whether he should propose to his girlfriend, a distinct, clear, audible voice told him in English, "She will be your wife and mother of your children." He later married her and had four children with her. Another very close friend of mine, who is currently the most experienced trusts & estates attorney in Hawaii, and also a former Marine Corps JAG officer and a company commander, was praying about whether he should quit his law firm and go into private practice. He heard a clear, audible voice in English say, "Do you want me as your business partner?" He then has had a very distinguished private practice. When I was singing in church with my then-finance, a complete stranger came up to me and said that God told her to convey a message to us--that we should stop sleeping together (we were), that my finance should go into children's ministry, and that God had a particular thing (a great thing) in store for me. Since then, my wife has gone into children's ministry and been exceptionally successful in her work. I conclude that God is real and that he cares about us and our personal situtations. I know it was God or at least conveyed by God through an angel in these three situations because they spoke of the future, and only God knows the future.

I don't know what else this voice told your mother. However, you can judge such voices in two ways. First, you can judge the voice by what it says. If what it says is true, the voice is from God. If the voice is deceptive, the voice is from the devil or one of his minions. Second, you can judge a voice by how it makes you feel. If the voice makes you feel good and warm inside, or if the voice convicts you of a sin in your life (as I was convicted), or if the voice encourages you to do a good thing, the voice is from God. If the voice scares the living daylights out of you, or encourages you to do something evil even if the feeling it inspires feels good, or if the voice says something that turns out not to be true, the voice is from Satan or one of his minions.

It would be helpful to know more specifics. What article was she reading in the paper when she heard to voice? What was she thinking just before she heard the voice? How did the voice sound? How did it make her feel inside? What religion, if any, does your mother belong to? Do any members of your family belong to a particular religion? There is a process and an analysis to be followed, even if the process, strictly speaking, is not scientific per se.

 

[EnemyPartyII]

Auditory halucinations are quote common, and many people report having heard things they KNOW where not real. I've had it happen to me once or twice.

Usually its blamed on the brains tendency to "fill in the blanks" and find patterns... usually the system works pretty well, but occasionally it misfires and identifies something as being there when it isn't, and fills in the gaps to give a false positive.

Its not unusual, and it doesn't mean your mum is nuts. It doesn't become a problem until it is happening frequently, or you can no longer distinguish between the halucination and reality.

Various theories have been put forward to explain the occurrence of hallucinations. When psychodynamic (Freudian) theories were popular in psychiatry, hallucinations were seen as a projection of unconscious wishes, thoughts and wants. As biological theories have become orthodox, hallucinations are more often thought of (by psychologists at least) as being caused by functional deficits in the brain. With reference to mental illness, the function (or dysfunction) of the neurotransmitter dopamine is thought to be particularly important.[9] Psychological research has argued that hallucinations may result from biases in what are known as metacognitive abilities.[10] These are abilities that allow us to monitor or draw inferences from our own internal psychological states (such as intentions, memories, beliefs and thoughts). The ability to discriminate between self-generated and external sources of information is considered to be an important metacognitive skill and one which may break down to cause hallucinatory experiences. Projection of an internal state or a person's own reaction to another may arise in the form of hallucinations, especially auditory hallucinations. A few scientists have argued that such hallucinations may be the result of other conscious thoughts. A recent hypothesis that is gaining acceptance concerns the role of overactive top-down processing, or strong perceptual expectations, that can generate spontaneous perceptual output (that is, hallucination).[11]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucination#Scientific_explanations

 

[EnemyPartyII]

[edit] Auditory hallucinations

Auditory hallucinations, and in particular the hearing of a voice, are thought of as particularly characteristic of people suffering from schizophrenia. However, normal subjects also report auditory hallucinations to a surprising extent. For example, Bentall and Slade[15] found that as many as 15.4% of a population of 150 male students were prepared to endorse the statement ‘In the past I have had the experience of hearing a person’s voice and then found that no one was there’. They add: ‘[…]no less that 17.5% of the [subjects] were prepared to score the item “I often hear a voice speaking my thoughts aloud” as “Certainly Applies”. This latter item is usually regarded as a first-rank symptom of schizophrenia[…]’
Green and McCreery[16] found that 14% of their 1800 self-selected subjects reported a purely auditory hallucination, and of these nearly half involved the hearing of articulate or inarticulate human speech sounds. An example of the former would be the case of an engineer facing a difficult professional decision, who, while sitting in a cinema, heard a voice saying, ‘loudly and distinctly’: ‘You can’t do it you know’. He adds: ‘It was so clear and resonant that I turned and looked at my companion who was gazing placidly at the screen[…] I was amazed and somewhat relieved when it became apparent that I was the only person who had heard anything.’[17]
This case would be an example of what Posey and Losch[18] call ‘hearing a comforting or advising voice that is not perceived as being one’s own thoughts’. They estimated that approximately 10% of their population of 375 American college students had had this type of experience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinations_in_the_sane#Auditory_hallucinations

 

[Tenka]

In the Chronicles of Narnia, the old professor questions Peter about his skepticism that Lucy actually went through the wardrobe. He asks Peter if Lucy is prone to lying. He admitted no. He asked her if she is crazy or has delusions. He admitted no. He then concluded that it is logical that she could be telling the truth.

I said I did believe my mother had this experience, I don't think she is crazy, I think she accurately related what happened with a minimum of hyperbole. I also think it is possible she can be both telling me truthfully what she felt and not really experiencing what she thought happened.

I don't know what else this voice told your mother.

It didn't tell her anything, she just heard her name called.

It would be helpful to know more specifics. What article was she reading in the paper when she heard to voice?

I believe it was the crossword puzzle.

What was she thinking just before she heard the voice?

A 4 letter word for 'afresh'.

How did the voice sound?

A bit like me actually, she claims.

How did it make her feel inside?

Weirded out I'm told, she heard a voice where there was no person.

What religion, if any, does your mother belong to?

None, but she is holding out for some kind of afterlife. Before me she had another another child who died exactly 1 year before the day I was due to be born, I was induced early so the dates wouldn't coincide.

Do any members of your family belong to a particular religion?

Not particularly, her sister's family were Hillsongers until recently when the decided it was a crock of the proverbial. Their mother was raised Catholic but isn't terribly religious.

Usually its blamed on the brains tendency to "fill in the blanks" and find patterns... usually the system works pretty well, but occasionally it misfires and identifies something as being there when it isn't, and fills in the gaps to give a false positive.

I've felt it too, but not to a degree that I would look around trying to find the voice. But I'm not given to belief in supernatural whereas my mother is moreso.

 

[True_Blue]

I said I did believe my mother had this experience, I don't think she is crazy, I think she accurately related what happened with a minimum of hyperbole. I also think it is possible she can be both telling me truthfully what she felt and not really experiencing what she thought happened.
It didn't tell her anything, she just heard her name called.
I believe it was the crossword puzzle.
A 4 letter word for 'afresh'.
A bit like me actually, she claims.
Weirded out I'm told, she heard a voice where there was no person.
None, but she is holding out for some kind of afterlife. Before me she had another another child who died exactly 1 year before the day I was due to be born, I was induced early so the dates wouldn't coincide.
Not particularly, her sister's family were Hillsongers until recently when the decided it was a crock of the proverbial. Their mother was raised Catholic but isn't terribly religious.

I've felt it too, but not to a degree that I would look around trying to find the voice. But I'm not given to belief in supernatural whereas my mother is moreso.

How old is your mother? Has she ever had any previous indication of mental illness? I am also not going to attribute something to a supernatural effect unless there is a cognizable purpose behind the voice.

If you're referring to the Sydney-based Hillsong Church, they are a very Pentecostal and spirit-filled church. My daughters love their music videos. I just looked up their statement of faith here, and I can conclude that they are a legitimate mainstream church. My pastor also speaks highly of them. Based on those things, I would highly recommend the Hillsong church to most people, though people who prefer a quieter and more sedate atmosphere, or feel God calling them to a different church, might be better served at a different church. Spiritual experiences are more likely to take place in and around overtly occultist churches and overtly Pentecostal churches, but of course the fact that your mother went to Hillsong is not dispositive.

Here is a passage in the Bible similar to what your mother experienced, so it's hard to glean purpose from only one data point, especially when, at times, the actual word of God is rare. Samuel's experience is more clearly the work of God because he heard his voice multiple times, he was young, God talked to him at length, and what God said turned out to be true.

1 The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.
2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple [a] of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel.
Samuel answered, "Here I am." 5 And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.
6 Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
"My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
8 The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!"
Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
11 And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them. 14 Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, 'The guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.' "
15 Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him and said, "Samuel, my son."
Samuel answered, "Here I am."
17 "What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you." 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, "He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes."

The best thing for your mother to do is to pray, "Speak, for your servant is listening." She should also consider going back to Hillsong. If there are further indications of an actual medical illness, she should consider medical treatment.

 

[Tenka]

How old is your mother?

56 in August.

 

[True_Blue]

56 in August.

[Please note the large edit I made to a previous post above]

My mother is about the same age, and she's whip-smart. If she told me she heard a voice, then she heard a voice. I personally would not question her judgment. My brothers probably would, though. While I admit my biases and predispositions, I do attribute this voice as supernatural absent evidence to the contrary.

 

[The Nihilist]

I do attribute this voice as supernatural absent evidence to the contrary.

what a surprise. do you also see faces in the clouds?

 

[Tenka]

Has she ever had any previous indication of mental illness?

This doesn't seem to be an indication of mental illness.

Spiritual experiences are more likely to take place in and around overtly occultist churches and overtly Pentecostal churches, but of course the fact that your mother went to Hillsong is not dispositive.

My mother didn't attend Hillsong, that was her sister's family until recently. My mother and my uncles were creeped out by the mass hysteria encouraged by the church and it's emphasis on collecting property, money and gaining political clout.

The best thing for your mother to do is to pray, "Speak, for your servant is listening." She should also consider going back to Hillsong.If there are further indications of an actual medical illness, she should consider medical treatment.

Well obviously I'm not going to advise my mother to pray to the Christian god. I'm pretty sure the last time either of my parents did was the day my sister died. And I don't think this is necessariliy a sign of mental illness, just a misfired signal from the brain. We depend on the brain to tell us about what's happening but it isn't always correct.

My mother is about the same age, and she's whip-smart. If she told me she heard a voice, then she heard a voice. I personally would not question her judgment.

I said I think my mother 'heard' a voice, at least her brain reported it. I just don't think there was a real voice or a supernatural one.

While I admit my biases and predispositions, I do attribute this voice as supernatural absent evidence to the contrary.

Or you could attribute it to a brain 'true/false' signal or misfire, absent evidence to the contrary.

However, normal subjects also report auditory hallucinations to a surprising extent. For example, Bentall and Slade[15] found that as many as 15.4% of a population of 150 male students were prepared to endorse the statement ‘In the past I have had the experience of hearing a person’s voice and then found that no one was there’. They add: ‘[…]no less that 17.5% of the [subjects] were prepared to score the item “I often hear a voice speaking my thoughts aloud” as “Certainly Applies”

This is at once both comforting and a little scary..

 

[Tenka]

what a surprise. do you also see faces in the clouds?

I do, and in the woodgrain swirls on my desk and in the random, mottled colours of my knit beanie.
They don't tell me anything though.

 

[LewisWildermuth]

It is not all that uncommon and is not a sign of mental illness in and of itself.

I have become a bit of a sceptic over the years, and I do sometimes hear "voices," usually calling my name or something simple, and it can still freak me out even though I know what it is, especially if I am half awake.

I may hear more than some because I narrate a lot to my self in my head, trying to figure out what to say, write, or just bouncing ideas around in my head. Giving these ideas a voice makes it easier for me. So given that my brain works in "spoken" thoughts, it is not a surprise when these thoughts startle me with an "ah-ha" outburst.

 

[True_Blue]

It is not all that uncommon and is not a sign of mental illness in and of itself.

I have become a bit of a sceptic over the years, and I do sometimes hear "voices," usually calling my name or something simple, and it can still freak me out even though I know what it is, especially if I am half awake.

I may hear more than some because I narrate a lot to my self in my head, trying to figure out what to say, write, or just bouncing ideas around in my head. Giving these ideas a voice makes it easier for me. So given that my brain works in "spoken" thoughts, it is not a surprise when these thoughts startle me with an "ah-ha" outburst.

I have a very strong internal dialogue, but I can't say I've ever heard a voice.

Any "voice" must be tested by meaning and reason. A mere voice does not bespeak the supernatural. Independent indicia are appropriate.

 

[plindboe]

I sometimes get hallucinations before going to sleep. Usually they are auditory, but I've tried a visual one as well. The auditory ones are usually voices, I hear my name said or the beginning of a word and I wake up and snap out of it. I've heard a car horn and door creaking as well. The visual one looked like fireworks, just alot of small flashes.

The experiences have seemed rather mundane to me. But I can imagine to a supersticious individual such experiences can just as well be attributed to telepathy, ghosts, demons or what have you. As soon as a person interprets it with one of these belief systems, the experience is suddenly anything but mundane, but might even be shocking and life changing to the individual.

Peter

 

[Pwnzerfaust]

I don't think I've heard any voices before. Well, that's not entirely true. I remember I once heard my name being whispered from my living room while there was no one in the apartment. I went to check it out, and it turned out to be a window slightly open with the wind blowing through it, and my brain tried to understand what it was so it attached my name to it. When I figured out what it was, though, it just sounded like wind.

 

[paug]

I don't think there's any need to assign some paranormal quality to phenomena quite well documented by science. You can attach God to anything if you look hard enough, even things that on paper seem completely , well, ungodly (cancers, natural disasters etc etc etc).

 

[ChordatesLegacy]

[Please note the large edit I made to a previous post above]

I do attribute this voice as supernatural .

I am afraid this is the easy option and defiantly the wrong one. It is interesting that many people with an unanswerable question resort to religion, “which is supernatural” for an answer. My take on this is that most people desire closure to their questions, when none is forthcoming they attribute it to their brand of magical mysticism. I mean some of the South American tribes would have answered your question by stating than you mother is possessed by a forest spirit, which can only be driven out by the use of hallucinogenic drugs. That reminds me of my youth and my experimentation with magic mushrooms and LSD, both caused intense audio hallucinations, but if I said it was supernatural would you believe me; no is probably your answer, but 300 years ago your answer would have been yes.

The simple fact of the matter is; if no answer is forthcoming, then the question remains unanswered; and also remains unanswered when the supernatural is used to explain it away.

 

[Veritas21]

The answer to this is rather complicated, but I will do my best to break it down.

How memories work:
The human brain is composed on tons of cells called neurons, which make a vast array of circuits among one another (one neuron can have thousands of dendrites and terminals, allowing for trillions of connections within the system). Memories are created by physical changes within these cells and how they connect to one another. Short term memory occurs when an electric signal is sent through a particular pathway. After the signal is cycled through the system enough times (in most cases, over the course of two weeks) the neurons physically change their structure by adding synapses to accomidate the new signal, and long term memories are formed.

Association:
Because memories are formed by long, complex series of circuits, many of the circuits overlap. Many people are familiar with using mnemonics to remember things. In math for example, anyone educated in a public school should remember Tom's old aunt sat on her can and hollared. (Tan = Opposite / Adjacent, Sin = Opposite / Hypotenus, Cosin = Adjacent / Hypotenus). Many people remember things by associating them with a jingle or perhaps words they know. This causes a physical overlap in the memory within the brain, and allows for the new information to be more easily recalled.

Recall:
Clearly, if our brain is a huge interconnected circuit of associations, then the presence of a stimuli may actually trigger memories or thoughts that don't APPEAR to be related, but actually are. Ever get a song stuck in your head? Chances are somewhere along the line you made some association (probably unintentionally) with that song and experienced seemingly unrelated stimuli that triggered it.

Hearing Voices:
The auditory cortex of the brain works in much the same way, and actually works hand in hand with other sections of the brain in its processing. The auditory cortex is typically stimulated by other sections of the brain before it engages. Therefore, if your mother were to receive some sort of stimulus that caused an association in a different part of her brain, it is very feasible that the circuit the stimulus activated triggered a response within the auditory cortex, hence her subjective experience of "hearing" a voice.

If I dug out my old biopsych notes I can explain this process in considerably more detail to you, but this is the jist of it that I remember off the top of my head. Please let me know if you would like a more detailed explanation. Your mother is not crazy, she likely truly experienced it. Hearing voices does not always mean a mental disorder as some would have you believe. I have never seen the internal hearing of voices effectively demonstrated as the work of God, but maybe someone will show that someday.

 

[mpok1519]

I thought i saw a ufo blast into hyper space once.

I think it was jut my eyes readjusting to the light; unexplained auditory phenomena I believe works in the same way; also, deja vu is also related.

but then again, how come angels ghosts and spirits couldnt exist?

just throwing out some possibilities...

 

[paug]

I thought i saw a ufo blast into hyper space once.

I think it was jut my eyes readjusting to the light; unexplained auditory phenomena I believe works in the same way; also, deja vu is also related.

but then again, how come angels ghosts and spirits couldnt exist?

just throwing out some possibilities...

...wait, what? Unexplained auditory phenomena occurs when your eyes readjust to the light? Does anyone here actually proofread their posts (especially you, mpok, should)?

Deja vu occurs, i understand, when nerve impulses misfire from the memory cortex's, mistakingly between short- and long-term memory areas. So what occurs now (short-term) actually feels to have occurred earlier (long term). Can't remember the precise mechanisms.


why wouldn't angels ghosts and spirits exist? What do you mean by exist? (i.e. in someone's imagination, or materially EXIST, that is, be composed of matter or energy)